By the late 80s, the action genre was ripe for parody. The decade gave birth to the muscle-bound action hero, who by the early '90s had already become something of an archetype in the wider culture. So you'd think something like National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 would be a comedy hit when it debuted in 1993. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.

The film stars Emilio Estevez as Sgt. Jack Colt, a parody of Mel Gibson's Martin Riggs from the Lethal Weapon movies. Samuel L. Jackson plays his reluctant partner, Sgt. Wes Luger, himself a parody of Danny Glover's Roger Murtaugh. Together the LAPD duo embark on a mission to solve the murder of their fellow officer Sgt. Billy York (Whoopi Goldberg), which is essentially just an excuse for the movie to, right, let down the action genre as a whole.

Throughout the film, the writers take on all the famous action franchises of the time, from Sylvester Stallone's Rambo movies to Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to one-up Stallone's long-time rival with Commando. Unfortunately, none of this added much in the way of critical response. Loaded Weapon 1 has a score of 21%. Rotten tomatoeswhere the critical consensus accused the film of being "a tired parody that cycles through its list of references with little comic flair". As a result, this is one National Lampoon movie that has been largely forgotten.

But amidst the "tired parody" is a fun piece from none other than Bruce Willis himself, appearing as a version of arguably his most famous character.

On Lethal Weapon Movies. were already quite over the top and more than aware of their own excess, which makes parodying them somewhat of a challenge - one that, according to critics, Loaded Weapon 1 failed to overcome. But if all you saw was Bruce Willis cameoyou might think the movie was at least somewhat entertaining.

The short scene sees Willis playing an obvious version of his "Die Hard" character, John McClane, crawling out of the ruins of his own trailer home after it was blown up by a goon who mistook it for the home of Emilio Estevez's sergeant. Jack Colt. Although he is not mentioned by name, the character wears the same vest that Willis made famous in his 1988 action film debut, with Willis waving a makeshift white flag before emerging from the flames and yelling at his assailant: "What what the hell? are you doing?"

Although Willis is on screen for 30 seconds, his appearance may be the best thing about this forgettable action comedy. How on IMDbthe actor even appears on the cover of an international VHS release, which, judging by the overall reaction to the film, was at least worth shooting to try and convince people to buy this thing.